Skiing holiday

It's skiing week here in Kuopio. Pretty well everything here stops and everybody goes skiing... so I am led to believe. Somebody, somewhere, must have noted the dates in their diary, as after 4/5 weeks of temperatures between -20 and -30, the mercury has risen to much warmer regions of -5 to zero, i.e. perfect weather for skiing etc. I went cross-country yesterday evening, not far, but very nice. The better half and the budding violinist have just returned from an afternoons downhill (a treat for them both!). The better half reported that, after the initial relearning period (it's been a year since), the budding violinist was matching her for speed and control. Remember that the older, wiser party has a lot more experience, and the younger version has been once before. When do children 'learn' fear?? Oh, well, like mother/father like daughter. No. 2 has much more sense of caution, by contrast. I am hoping for a chance to try 'free heel' skates again. Think of the sort that speed skaters wear, long blade and only attached at the toe. There is a 14 km track cleared on the lake, and these can be hired. They're a lot faster than normal skates, as Norwegian wood can vouch, and also much more suitable for the rough ice you find on lakes. Speed without control, waaheeeeey! One other thing that is really noticeable is the lengthening of the days. In Ireland, it seems to creep forward steathily, but here, we have already almost 10 ½ hours of daylight. I suppose when you go from almost no daylight to almost no night in 6 months, it's going to be a lot more noticeable. Maybe it's connected to the fact that it's already March - what happened to Jan and feb?